Support groups such as 12 step meetings and SMART Recovery can help you maintain sobriety.
For many people, alcohol rehab marks a turning point in their lives. During treatment, a person unlearns destructive, addiction-based behaviors and replaces them with healthy ways of thinking and interacting in the world.
After completing alcohol rehab, those in recovery must learn to navigate around the people, places and things that trigger old drinking behaviors. Maintaining sobriety after alcohol rehab can be challenging, but nonetheless doable.
As everyone experiences addiction and recovery differently, what may work for one person may fail miserably for another. Some people may require ongoing outpatient treatment supports, while others may only need to attend 12-Step meetings on a regular basis. Ultimately, knowing and understanding your treatment needs can go a long way towards maintaining sobriety after alcohol rehab.
Relapse Prevention
According to Oxford University Press, the risk of relapse runs highest during the first six months after leaving alcohol rehab. Relapse rates can vary depending on the amount of time that’s passed and the type of treatment received:
The first month after rehab sees a 19 percent relapse rate after inpatient treatment
The relapse rate increases to 34 percent (during the first month) for people who’ve completed outpatient treatment
Without needed aftercare supports in place, the risk of relapse increases considerably. Maintaining sobriety after alcohol rehab requires recovering alcoholics to integrate the skills and tools learned in rehab within their everyday lives.
Aftercare Options
Aftercare options provide recovering alcoholics with the types of treatments and supports needed to maintain sobriety once they complete alcohol rehab. A person’s individual circumstances will dictate which options will work best.
Aftercare options to choose from include:
Medication therapies, such as Antabuse or Suboxone
Ongoing individual psychotherapy sessions
Group therapy programs
Sober living homes
Family counseling
Life skills training
People coming off a long history of alcoholism may require medication therapies to help relieve ongoing withdrawal effects. People who suffer from other psychological problems will likely benefit from ongoing individual psychotherapy and group therapy programs.
Sober living and life skills training work well for people who are putting their lives back together in recovery. Those needing to repair family and/or relationship bonds may well benefit from ongoing family counseling treatment.
Co-Existing Conditions
For people recovering from chronic alcoholism, the effects of alcohol often cause other psychological problems to develop. Depression and anxiety disorders can easily result from the worsening chemical imbalances caused by an alcohol addiction.
In order to maintain sobriety after alcohol rehab, ongoing psychotherapy and possibly medication treatment is essential to keeping an addiction under control. Otherwise, the symptoms of the co-existing condition will make it even more difficult to maintain abstinence.
12-Step Support Meetings
Alcoholics Anonymous has a long-standing history as an effective long-term support for people in recovery. Many people first encounter 12-Step meetings while in alcohol rehab.
Ongoing attendance at support meetings helps to keep a person grounded in the recovery process. When the urge to drink becomes overwhelming, the support and guidance offered by others experiencing the same challenges can prove invaluable.
Detox is often the first part of a long-term, effective treatment program for individuals who become addicted to drugs. While it isn’t always necessary (and it certainly isn’t the only component to addiction treatment by far), detox is used at the beginning of many rehab programs for a reason. In addition, patients who attend detox….
Are you the friend or family member of a known addict? Did you know that sometimes it’s the friends and family members that actually help save the life of the addict by making the call and helping them get into drug rehab to get help for their addiction? It’s not just the addict who can….
Engaging in drug abuse practices on a regular basis can quickly snowball into a way of life, commonly known as addiction. During the course of abusing drugs, the brain and body undergo changes that only work to promote continued drug use. By the time addiction becomes an issue, a person requires more than one form….
Choosing an addiction treatment program can be a difficult process, especially when there are so many different types of centers and programs available. Because time spent in treatment is usually very important to most recovering addicts, you may be wondering if you should attend a long-term or short-term rehab program. It is important to assess….
While it’s easy to say that you don’t go to drug and alcohol rehab to make friends, it’s bound to happen when you share the same living space with someone for weeks, engage in treatment together, and share the destruction that addiction has caused in your life. Some people discourage making friends during inpatient drug….
According to the NIDA, “Long-term methamphetamine abuse has many negative consequences, including addiction.” Because the drug is so potent and its effects are so intense, recovery from methamphetamine addiction can take a very long time and be extremely precarious. This is why rehab is such an important part of meth addiction recovery. We can help….
If you have a loved one who has recently completed drug rehab and you think that everything is “fixed” now, think again! While drug rehab is a very sobering experience and can be very beneficial at getting individuals back on track and aiming toward recovery the sobering truth is that many individuals will fail post drug….
It is no surprise that the number of prescription drug abusers has been growing steadily and so have the rates of overdose death. It is an increasingly dangerous situation that affects people in all ages, socioeconomic groups, and races. However, despite the attention the opiate epidemic is getting in general, one group of people is….
According to The National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug addiction is a chronic illness that cannot be cured in a few days. Research has proven that drug addiction treatment is the most effective way for a person to learn to manage their addiction, and helps them to stop using drugs, prevents them from relapsing, and….
Calvert Treatment Facility and Rehab Centers have come together to provide greater access to drug and alcohol rehabilitation services in Maryland effectively leading more residents along the journey to recovery. Rehab Centers is a community resource that specializes in promoting rehabilitation services of rehab centers throughout the United States. Recently, Calvert Treatment Facility of Maryland….
Calls to numbers on a specific treatment center listing will be routed to that treatment center. Calls to any general helpline will be answered or returned by one of the treatment providers listed, each of which is a paid advertiser.
By calling the helpline you agree to the terms of use. We do not receive any commission or fee that is dependent upon which treatment provider a caller chooses. There is no obligation to enter treatment.